SMLR Update February 7, 2011

SMLR News

SMLR Archives Collections Open to Researchers
Amongst the “secret treasures” of the James P. Carey Library are our manuscript collections. These are the papers, photographs, and memorabilia of researchers, labor educators, and labor leaders who have been affiliated with the Institute of Management and Labor Relations (IMLR), the predecessor to the School of Management and Labor Relations. We are happy to announce that five of these collections have been organized and documented and are available to the public for research: the papers of Jack Chernick, Norman Eiger, George Meisler, Sol Stetin, and Joseph Vertrees. Chernick, Eiger, and Vertrees were significant figures in the development of the School of Management and Labor Relations as well as noteworthy researchers and influential figures in the New Jersey labor relations world. Stetin and Meisler were nationally known labor leaders in the garment and retail industries, who in their later years were affiliated with IMLR and Rutgers. The Finding Aids to these collections are available on the web sites of the Carey Library and the Special Collections and University Archives of the Rutgers University Libraries.

New Publications
Congratulations to Jean Phillips and Stan Gully on the publication of the 2nd edition of their staffing textbook: Strategic Staffing (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. This is the fourth new book they've written or edited in the past year, and they are hard at work on a new text on Organizational Behavior, that will feature heavy use of multimedia content produced in cooperation with RuTV.

Digital Marketing Saving Lives in Nepal
Rutgers CMD successfully delivered its first Custom Mini-MBA: Digital Marketing at Sonosite headquarters in Seattle, Washington. Sonosite, a leading provider of handheld ultrasound equipment, flew out 40 senior members of their global marketing team to participate in the program, which was delivered on Apple's iPad. In addition to the course, CMD is providing 30 days of consulting to help teams apply the learning back in the field. For example, one team of students is using digital marketing to help provide free medical equipment to emerging markets as part of Sonosite's humanitarian outreach efforts.

Mini MBA in Global BioEntrepreneurship
With support from a National Emergency Grant that Bio-1 helped secure for NJ to aid displaced workers in the BioPharma industry, CMD will be running another session of its highly successful Mini-MBA in Global BioEntrepreneurship. The course will be run in mid-May to be followed by BioNJ's International Partnering Conference. It will bring companies and bioentrepreneurs from around the world who are interested in establishing US operations in NJ and match them with highly experienced NJ biopharma talent to work together on business plans that can create badly needed new jobs in the state. Interested international firms should contact Laura Hart at: hart@cmd.rutgers.edu.

CWW Guest Lecture
Kathleen Christensen, a Program Officer at the Sloan Foundation, gave an excellent talk on the research programs she's developed and sponsored in: Aging & Work, Workplace Flexibility, and Work/Family issues.

IFWEA Bulletin
Sue Schurman, the President of the International Federation for Workers Education Associations, would like to share the new IFWEA bulletin with our readers, and encourage any of you who are interested in global/international labor issues to consider attending the upcoming IFWEA quadrennial convention in Cape Town, South Africa in November 2011. It is an amazing event - and in an amazing place this year. Please contact Sue for details: schurman@dceo.rutgers.edu. Sue and IFWEA Executive Director Sahra Ryklief have, with support from SMLR, made some significant progress in transforming IFWEA from a European to a truly global organization and hope to stand for a second term to finish the task.

SMLR in the News

Tackling Education Reform
The research of Saul Rubinstein and John McCarthy of The Labor Studies and Employment Relations Department was featured on Fox News in Tampa, Florida. The piece,"All Eyes on Hillsborough Schools," explains how superintendents are sitting next to teacher union representatives to tackle education reform. "Working together translates into student success," said Rubinstein.

Help Finding a Job
Paula Caliguiri was featured in an article in The Daily Targum on February 3, 2011 titled "Professor Teaches How to Turn Talent into jobs." The insights she shared come from her book Get a Life, Not a Job, one of the top ten career books released in 2010.

Upcoming Events

Workforce Development Workshop - March 8, 2011
In partnership with LERA and the Center for American Progress, Sue Schurman, Louis Soares, and I are organizing a half-day workshop in Washington, DC at CAP on the morning of March 8th, entitled "Transforming the US Workforce Development System." More details to follow.

LEARN - Grievance Handling Under the Railway Labor Act online Course
This new Labor Extension course will give participants an in-depth understanding of the Railway Labor Act and how it applies to grievance resolution and contract administration for airline and railroad workers in the U.S. Too often, grievance classes do not distinguish between the National Labor Relations Act and the Railway Labor Act, particularly in the area of grievance resolution. There are key differences between the two statutes. not only in the area of organizing but also in the day-to-day administration of contracts. This course will address those differences and clarify how issues such as Weingarten rights, rights to information and discovery, and disciplinary hearings can be handled under the Railway Labor Act. The course is designed to enhance union representatives' knowledge and skills to resolve grievances effectively, and is recommended for shop stewards and labor advocates in the U.S. railroad and airlines industries.

Six Tuesdays, March 22-April 26, 2011, 6.00 - 8.45 pm. Learn from Robert Wechsler, Ph.D., former Education and Research Director of the national Transport Workers Union of American, who has worked extensively with railroad and airline grievance committees.

Highlights of the Dean's Activities

PSM Speaker Series
I attended an excellent talk by John Crowley, Founder and CEO of Amicus Therapeutics, whose family's story was the inspiration for the film, Extraordinary Measures. John shared insights about his career building multiple bioscience companies to try to develop a cure for the very rare disease that afflicts two of his children. The talk was part of the Professional Science Master's Building New Jersey's Innovation Ecosystem monthly lecture series.

MBS International Partnerships
I had a great follow-up meeting in New York with Dean Tracey Horton and Ray Da Silva, head of international programs at the University of Western Australia Business School in Perth, to move forward our discussions of creating a dual degree partnership with the Rutgers MBS program. We are also exploring new potential partnering opportunities with Portugal, Greece, Ethiopia, and Kazakhstan.

New Leader for IWL
I had an excellent introductory meeting with Alison Bernstein, who will be joining Rutgers this summer to lead the Institute for Women's Leadership. I'm excited about the opportunities to partner with her, Douglass College, and our Center for Women and Work to solidify Rutgers' national leadership in these areas. Alison joins Rutgers from Spelman College after a successful career at the Ford Foundation.

Football Recruiting
As a first-year member of the Academic Oversight Committee for Athletics, I got an interesting inside look into the football recruiting process and a chance to meet many of the athletes and their families. Congratulations to Coach Schiano and his staff on attracting the program's strongest-ever recruiting class.

Budget Advisory Group
Along with Adrienne Eaton, I took part in a cross-Rutgers Advisory Group that discussed the implications of the Report from the Governor's Task Force on Higher Education and examined the challenging budget situation that the University continues to face. One interesting fact to emerge from the meeting was that the medical school in New Brunswick was never officially removed from Rutgers, but rather given to UMDNJ by the state on a 50-year loan, with all of its facilities and programs slated to returning to Rutgers in 2022, if not before.

China Strategy
Our working group is making steady progress on formulating a strategy to make Rutgers a leading location for Chinese undergraduate and master's students. We hope to deliver this soon to President McCormick.

Undergrate Version of the MBS
We had a successful kickoff meeting with a number of schools from across all 3 Rutgers campuses to begin planning for an interdisciplinary honors program integrating science & engineering that would complement the Master's of Business and Science degree.

Albert Meyer
I had a fascinating initial discussion with Albert Meyer, CPA founder and President of Bastiat Capital. Mr. Meyer draws on 15 years as an accounting professor and 11 years in equity research. Mr. Meyer was formerly an Accounting Professor at Spring Arbor University in Michigan. He gained national recognition for exposing the New Era Philanthropy Foundation, a Ponzi scheme that defrauded non-profits of hundreds of millions of dollars.and then for being the first to expose Tyco's suspect accounting and governance practices. We hope to be able to bring Mr. Meyer to campus the next time he is in our area. Thanks to Christopher De Michele for this introduction.

Intersect Fund Board meeting
The Intersect Fund continues to build on success, creating 15 new jobs in the last year and placing 96% of its training graduates in employment within a year. The Fund has raised an additional $58,500 in grant funding in the last 2 months.

RBS Dean Search
We had a key meeting of the search committee on Thursday, and will be bringing in a strong slate of candidates for a first round of off-campus interviews later this month.

DC Discussion
Took part in a fascinating discussion that featured many of the leading young experts on international trade and strategic issues in Washington, DC hosted by Myron Brilliant, head of international policy for the US Chamber of Commerce. This session focused on the rapidly evolving situation in the Middle East, China, and trade policy.

NSF ADVANCE Grant
I met with the site-visit team that is conducting the three-year evaluation of Rutgers program to enhance career opportunities for women in the sciences, engineering and math.

Meetings with Staff and Faculty
I continued a series of one-on-one and small group meetings with faculty and staff to get their feedback on my first term as Dean and thoughts on how we can continue to move the School forward in the years ahead. Was tempted to cancel the Bagel Breakfasts, as our first 3 efforts to schedule all coincided with snow storms. Hoping there is no causal relationship.

Transforming Citizenship:
The Subjective Consequences of Local Political Mobilization

Overview: Community-based labor mobilizations have received growing attention from scholars and activists alike who see this emerging community orientation, which has targeted local government, as a significant strategic innovation. Alternatively, I focus on the subjective and ideological consequences for those who participate in such forms of mobilization. Existing theories of Castells, Touraine and others posit that action at the local level is characterized by a “defensive,” “introverted,” or “retrospective” stance. Critically interrogating this perspective, I examine a local mobilization—the case of a living wage campaign in Chicago—that deviates from these expectations; instead of spurring defensiveness, the campaign engendered a citizenship identity that was both active and inclusive.